a cease-fire is now in effect in gaza after attacks intensified earlier today. the big question is, will both sides stick to it? here's the latest numbers. eight days of fighting. 1,500 israeli air strikes and 1,500 rockets fired from gaza. five israeli dead. over 100 dead in gaza. militant blew up a bus. first bombing inside that city since 2006 in tel aviv. hillary clinton announced the temporary truce after a day packed with shuttle diplomacy. the deal came after meeting with israeli prime minister netanyahu. palestinian president abbas, egyptian president morsi and foreign minister and head of

theu.n. and leader of the arab league behind closed doors. >> this is a critical moment for the region. egypt's new government is assuming the responsibility and leadership that has long made this country a cornerstone of regional stability and peace. >> we start with nbc's jim macedo in cairo. who what are the details? >> reporter: well, steve, most importantly, starting at 2:00 p.m. as you mentioned israel stops all military action in israel and hamas stops launching rockets on israel and carrying out border attacks on israeli troops but this is the key thing. there is no signed formal agreement here. instead, israel and hamas reached an understanding, a kind of exchange of quiet for quiet. the first phase of a broader agreement. that should be followed by more intense negotiations, those will

be anchored and guaranteed we understand by egypt and the united states. to try to resolve the key demands on both sides. of course, for hamas, the lifting of that 6-year-old blockade of gaza. for israel, it's stopping all the weapons smuggling. but neither will happen immediately. at least, however, they have agreed in principle to these demands and the need to work them out. you had a clip of secretary clinton. she went on to call the cease-fire deal a step in the right direction. she said she looks forward in the days ahead she said to consolidating progress for the people of gaza and israel. and experts are saying that's the key difference here. in previous gaza wars, they locked horns, they separated and relocked and reloaded for the first time. now officials saying there's a progress, guaranteed by egypt ally of hamas and the united states, a friend of israel and reason for both sides to trust

and buy in to what they're calling a third phase, which would be a real peace process. at least that's the hope. by the way, the cease-fire is holding i understand on both sides so far. steve? >> all right. jim macedo in cairo. thanks for that. now cairo. aman, how's the news playing out there? >> reporter: not sure if you can hear it from this roof top but on the loud speakers of the mosque across gaza sermons celebrating the victory as they describe it hamas and the palestinian people and standing up to israel. that right now you can hear with the sound of some gun fire. celebratory gun fire in the sky as people come out firefighter first time probably in eight days, expressing their happiness. their satisfaction that the cease-fire is reached. not because of what it necessarily means but symbolizes for the palestinian people, particularly for militant groups like hamas and islamic jihad. no doubt about it.

coming days the militant groups flex their muscle, they're going to portray this as a victory for them. that they, the militant factions of hamas and others with the simple rockets as they consider them stand up to the might of the israeli military and that's how it's going to be portrayed and certainly how it's received right now by the people that are taken to the streets and just heard of jim, it's all about the coming hours and whether or not they're going to be able to remain disciplined and committed to the cease-fire. a problem hamas deals with is that there are other militant factions with rockets and missiles that don't answer to hamas and are not part of hamas' command and control structure the zoo the question is whether hamas can rein the groups in and prevent them from shattering the cease-fire with violence and the more important question about the long-term questions of gaza. is there a solution to address the comprehensive problems that the people in gaza endure on a

daily basis? that's what will come back to the surface for the policy makers and the countries in the region. steve? >> all right. thanks for that. stay safe. jonathan allen, senior washington correspondent for politico joins us now and started writing a new book on hillary clinton and jonathan, obviously, hillary at the heart of when's happened today with this cease-fire but that really hasn't been the case. the tenure as secretary of state coming to an end, hasn't been much engagement on the state department's part on the u.s. government's part in the middle east peace process. i wonder if you have a sense, is that -- is that coming from the white house or did she for these past four years share the view of the white house that sort of disengaging from the process was the right move? >> i would certainly say that the united states foreign policy goals are set by the white house. even if the secretary of state has different goals. they end up doing what the white house wants. so, as far as emphasis around the world, that's something that's coming from the obama

administration. and look, the middle east is an area that obviously has been a problem i would say for decades but really for centuries, maybe my len yeah. so that there are periods of more focus or less focus, you know, is not that surprising. i think the white house wanted to give an opportunity for direct bilateral talks between the two sides and israel or in that region. and obviously, they have not always worked as well as one would like it to happen. >> jonathan, we heard stories today of hillary clinton and president obama sharing a plane ride and sort of reminiscing about the past four years and talking back about campaign times and really is amazing how much has changed and how far they have come in four short years. >> absolutely. you know, just four years ago these guys were or this man and this woman at each other's throats politically. some of the aides hated each other. you would not have necessarily expected to see this coming together but, you know, really

started on the campaign trail in, you know, when hillary clinton started going out as a surrogate for barack obama and they gained some trust for each other. i don't think anybody would say they're best friends or expect them to be hanging out every weekend together and ten years from now but i do think that they developed a mutual trust and a mutual respect for each other's abilities and seen that through former senator clinton's time at the state department. >> so jonathan, republicans were a while now have sort of had an interest in promoting the clintons. they have been putting them forward as the reasonable democrats that they'd be able to work with opposed to the socialist communist muslim atheist guy who's in the white house right now. but now that already people are starting to look forward to 2016, hillary clinton has astronomical popularity. do you think republicans turn more of a critical gaze on her? >> sure. if they look at her as the potential democratic nominee,

they will do what they can to up end her, undermine her. look. the republicans who dislike hillary clinton may be a little quieter over four years and not gone away but i think that there are some republicans and when i say this, not the republican leadership in washington or anything but in terms of republican voters who have gained a newfound respect for secretary clinton. if you look at the popularity right now, you know, up towards 70%. that obviously means that there are a lot of independents and even some republicans in addition to a lot of democrats who look at her favorably these days and not the case at the end of the 2008 campaign. >> dr. j, to that end, two things i'm absolutely convinced of. hillary will run in 2016 and win. do you have any doubts about those assertions? >> sure. i mean, she is said herself she's not planning to run. obviously, those plans can change. barack obama had said on "meet the press" with the shermanesque

statement he wouldn't run for president in 2008. there are any number of things to happen to make her not run for president or perhaps they could make her not win the presidency. i mean, i think last time around in 2008 people saw her as the front-runner of the democratic nomination and possibly for winning the presidency and yet there were a lot of flaws with the campaign so, you know, if she were to run she would have to run a much better campaign than last time but i think a lot of appetite for her to run, not just among those who wanted her last time around but i think among some of the democrats who liked obama last time and also liked her and are interested in seeing that and maybe amongst independents who like what she's done over four years. a long-time public servant and hearing the voices of people who want her to run, whether she's able to turn them down or not is another question. >> jonathan, weshld not call off the next presidential election and hand it to hillary? >> that is it. >> believe it or not. let's do that. >> even if toure was channelling

nate silver right now, i would say we should hold the election. >> i disagree. i disagree, jonathan. >> no way he writes a book about hillary clinton thinking secretary of state is the high point of the career. >> right. she would win. i wouldn't say 100.0%. >> i'll give you that. >> 99.5%, that's what i say. >> anyway, jonathan allen, thank you for joining us. up next, the great thanksgiving getaway. stick with us for the turkey day survival guide. we are the cycle after all. we know how to move. wasn't my daughter's black bean soup spectacular? [ man thinking ] oh, this gas. those antacids aren't working. oh no, not that, not here! [ male announcer ] antacids don't relieve gas. gas-x is designed to relieve gas.

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do you feel this vehicle is safe for highway travel? >> yes, i do. yes, i really do. i believe that. i know it's not pretty to look at but it will get you where you want to go. >> you have no outside mirror. >> we lost this. >> no functioning gauges. >> not a one. however, the radio still works. i mean, funny as that may seem. the only radio is only thing that's working good. don't ask me how. ♪ shut up and drive ♪ shut up and drive live look at interstate 4 in orlando, florida, on this the busiest travel day of the year. 43 million americans will go by plane, train or automobile to make it to their thanksgiving destination. and for many, that is proving to be quite a challenge. let's start in atlanta.

maria la rosa at one of the nation's biggest hubs, hartsfield jackson international airport. >> krystal, as far as weather and travel goes, you have the whole fanpackage right now. we happen to be right now is called the downtown connecter. where we have the major interstates 75 and 85 connecting in midtown, getting through downtown atlanta and then taking you off towards the airport which is south of town. it has been clear skies, clear sailing since this morning where usually you have about 200,000 to 300,000 travelers on this very busy stretch of highway on any given day any way but all is well. hasn't been the case all across the country, of course. the big northwest pacific northwest storm continuing to bring driving rain and wind. places like the 5, i-90 out of seattle: past there, mountain snow. the wind and rain continues but looks like that will ease up as

we get in towards tomorrow. but we'll have to keep an eye on san francisco and seattle for potential delays. and of course, earlier today it was all about the fog. in places like st. louis, indianapolis reported low visibility at times and chicago, the hardest hit especially midway which actually had some flight cancelations earlier today because of the fog. eventually that will lift out and making traveling in and around parts of the midwest much easier with the rest of the afternoon and the evening. numbers amazing. 45% of holiday travelers traveling today and thankfully, mother nature is giving us a little bit of a break. latest of the atlanta. krystal, back to you. >> all right. thank you. now we have nbc meteorologist dylan drier with the thanksgiving forecast. how's it looking? >> for thanksgiving, looking okay and you have to deal with traffic as opposed to added trouble of rain or snow. most of the middle of the country with some fog earlier this morning, it is finally

starting to lift back through chicago and temperatures are warming up nicely through the plain states and through the nation's heartland and you can see from the center of the country all the way east we have nothing but clear skies, lots of sunshine but out west where half of my family lives we have a lot of rain from seattle right down through portland, oregon. and stretching down in to california, as well. there could be some delays in the seattle area. anyone traveling through the mountain passes we are seeing several inches of snow. been raining and snowing out that way since last weekend. so, travel troubles continue in the northwest but everywhere else we are seeing a good amount of sunshine for what's left of the travel this evening. tonight looks clear and not too cold so icy patches not an issue but tomorrow it will actually be a white thanksgiving across portions of northern north dakota, northern minnesota. but elsewhere, again, seeing sunshine. a couple of showers possible through the chicago area. nothing that should create too too many delays and still a nuisance but most people will already be in their destination

getting to thanksgiving and then friday some of that lighter rain starting to spread eastward. otherwise, thanksgiving looks good. >> thanks so much for that. for more on holiday travel, we're joined by wendy saks. toure? >> let's talk about the biggest choke points and people traveling in to and from them and what will be the number one worst airport to be moving through over the next few days? >> well, the trip adviser survey found that the most popular cities for travel this thanksgiving are chicago, los angeles, new york, philadelphia and boston. so i would say that those are going to be some of the busiest airports this holiday season. >> you know, wendy, not everybody goes over the river and through the woods to have turkey and cranberry sauce with grandma. most depressing thing i saw this week is families camping out at the big box stores like now and they're going to have, you know, i don't know canned food or

something tomorrow for lunch and dinner or whatever you call it and then black friday. that depresses me. are there other more fun unconventional thanksgiving you have heard of? >> well, what i found is really interesting. the trip adviser survey found about 40% of people are actually dining out this thanksgiving. they're not cooking at home. they're going out to a restaurant. so that was pretty interesting. not everyone wants the stress of making the turkey. >> cowards! >> that's okay. but i would recommend you find your restaurant in advance. a lot aren't actually open on thanksgiving so make sure you have your reservations well in advance. we also found that people are shopping which is not such a big surprise but about 30% of the trip adviser people surveyed said they're going to the mall and they're going to be taking advantage of the black friday sales. >> well, wendy, you know, everyone makes a really big deal about traveling to today and tomorrow. what about sunday because i'm going to be flying that day.

what am i in store for? >> what about me? >> yeah. what about me. >> brutal. i would avoid sunday. >> oh no. >> yeah. you know, and people are also hitting the roads in huge numbers and 70% of the people that trip adviser surveyed said they're going to drive during offpeak times so those peak times are wednesday. this is one of the busiest travel days of the year and sunday. >> great. >> if there's a way to travel on early thursday morning or saturday that's recommended. >> so you're saying my plan to drive on i-95 tonight and sunday is maybe not the best way to go. all right. >> i would say avoid that if you can. >> all right. wendy, thanks for that. happy thanksgiving. >> thanks, so much. coming up, a special turkey day spin cycle. what we are thankful for this year. binders of women? transvaginal probes? what is it going to be? find out next. into their work,

their name on the door, and their heart into their community. small business saturday is a day to show our support. a day to shop at stores owned by our friends and neighbors. and do our part for the businesses that do so much for us.

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president obama just wrapped up one of the most important white house traditions. the annual turkey pardon. cobbler and alternate gobbler picked from submissions by elementary students living out the days at george washington's mt. vernon estate. they're thankful and so are we. face it. we have a lot to be thankful for this year and brings us to a holiday edition of "the spin cycle." thinking back on the political moments of the past campaign season, it's hard to pick a winner but i honestly, you know, this is going to sound, i don't know, trite or corny but thankful we lost this election because i think conservatives really need to reconsider the way forward. and without this opportunity, i

think we'd keep doing stuff the way we have done it for past 50 years and which just an outdated apparatus and doesn't mean we necessarily have to move to the middle or lose our principles or change who we are but we have to recognize that we're in a different time and there are different ways to talk about the things that we need to talk about. so, i hope and i'm going to be working on this a little bit myself, i hope that conservatives sort of rejigger the message and look for ways to move forward in a new way. >> yeah. as usual, i'm the yin to your yang. i'm thankful for four more years. i think president obama is a good president and he will put the house in order sort to speak and focused on the big achievement that the legacy that the scholars will look at, so you think about obama care, that's that thing that will last for a long time, hopefully, and change america. perhaps a grand bargain will put

his name in the history books in a positive light. and two things that could happen that would be sort of put us on over the moon to replace scalia and change the face of the supreme court and maybe fall in that thing that carter fell in to and clinton. let me try to fix the middle east and, you know, i mean, that's a dream but i mean that's a sort of thing that guy reaching for the history books would want to do. >> yeah. i want to tell you what i was saying but cobbler and gobbler for a minute. i never understand the presidential pardon of the turkey. every year. >> you hate america? >> we humanize then and saying the rest of them kill 'em, gut 'em. >> yeah! >> they deserve to live now and celebrate -- i think to me -- >> are you eating turkey on thursday? >> i have no comment on that. >> yeah. that's what i thought. that's what i thought. >> hypocrite. >> so dry, i have to -- i won't. >> dark meat' calling it

cobbler. i'm thankful for moments like this. >> she says you asked her, sir, to enter in to an open marriage. would you like to take sometime to respond to that? >> no, but i will. i think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country and hard tore run for public office and appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that. >> that is amazing. >> i don't know how much time i have left in this world but i'm thankful i got to see that. a moment like that. at some point of my life. christian audience predomina predominantly. turning that question around and win the primary. the idea that gingrich if you remember the late 1990s, disgraced, shamed off the stage by his own party and he almost did nothing in between and then suddenly in 2012 wins the south

carolina primary and for two weeks we have to pretend he's serious -- i can't believe i saw that. it was fun. >> amazing. >> fun. >> well, we did not coordinate but i also am thankful for the presidential campaign of gingrich. no bah lowny of that one. >> you go in girl. >> i'm particular for the most dramatic press release of all times. if i may. the min i don't knows to do their bidding. washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. the fire fight started when the cowardly sense weakness. they fired timdly at first. then the sheep. not wanting to be dropped from the establishment's cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. now they're left exposed by their bilines and handles, su surely they had killed them off. this is the way it always

worked. a lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. but out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won't be intimidated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges america faces. >> yeah! bravo! and scene. >> wow. >> i'm waiting a long time to do that. i'll be honest with you. >> that reminds me of jennifer granholm who was the gift that keeps giving over this election season. do we have some tape, please? >> florida, 35,000 jobs! in ohio! 150,000 jobs! and in the great state of michigan, 211,000 good-paying, american jobs! all across america!

and also back manufacturing is rebounding! why? >> that was amazing. >> i forgot about this move. >> my arms! >> that's really good one. on a serious note -- >> you do that really well. >> you know, holidays are a time where we think about giving, our time, our money, our blood. and we do that better than any country in the world and we know that you give, too. but we hope you don't do it like this. >> hey! check this out. i got to give a christmas present to everyone so i'm pulling a watley. >> donation has been made in your name to the human fund. what is that? >> made it up. >> the human fund. money for people. >> what do you think? >> certain understated

stupidity. george. >> love "seinfeld." >> so good, so good. i hope you maybe can pick one of our favorite four charities we are giving to over the holiday seasons. mine is tony stewart foundation and it basically looks to give money to sick children, at-risk animals and drivers who have been injured in motor racing accidents and their families. there's the information for me steve? >> yeah. i told on the show about my grandmother and she in the final -- she was a nurse for her life and the final few years of her life cared for in part by a visiting nurse and a group in connecticut, vna healthcare and miracle workers with her. i'd give to them and give to this group of think of groups like this around you that do this kind of work. it's just invaluable work and so often doesn't get the attention and respect it deserves. >> great. in the wake of sandy, still a lot of people in the new york area and new jersey area needing help and remarkably one of the most effective a ivive organiza

out of occupy wall street is occupy sandy and phenomenal at providing residents with hot meals, helping get their houses together. i mean, anything that you can think of they have done. a phenomenal job. i would urge you to consider contributing to them. >> charity water means a lot to me. 800 million people that drink water that's likely to make them clean. it's a simple thing but changes people's lives. allows people especially girls to go to school rather than hours trekking to get water each day and 100% of the donations fund projects that helped 2.7 million people so far in 20 countries. >> great. there you have our four favorite charities. give to another one or one like it. coming up, the history of america from the pilgrims to the present day. one thing we can always count on, our country to embrace.

we're a nation of deadbeats? history buff examines the addiction to debt. how heart warming. that's next in the guest spot. if you are one of the millions of men who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and...

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those antacids aren't working. oh no, not that, not here! [ male announcer ] antacids don't relieve gas. gas-x is designed to relieve gas. gas-x. the gas xperts. closed door fiscal talks continue in washington this week despite the thanksgiving holiday. next week, you can expect a little more urgency as the full congress returns to town. facing debt is nothing new for us. in fact, it's helped shape our country and accomplish incredible things like the expansion westward and the louisiana purchase, florida, texas and california. those cost money, you know. our next guest argues that, yes, we are a country of dreamers and also a country of defalters. in the guest spot, scott nelson, an author of "a nation of deadbeats." i guess my first question would be, you have basically outlined

in the book a pattern you say you can see repeetding throughout american history, 19th century, the wall street meltdown. can you tell us what that pattern is and why we keep repeating it? >> yeah. the pattern goes back, in fact, early 1793. it's the beginning of the first bank of the united states. we have -- europeans lending to the u.s. really since the nation began. and lending to the country itself, but also, a lot of private lending and a lot of private lending is -- turns out to be not very good at paying it back and so the failure to pay back led to the 1819 panic. same thing in 1837 and again in 1857. our reputation in britain in the early part of the 19th century is terrible. we're -- they call us again and again a nation of defalters, a nation of deadbeats effectively. >> the terms like dead have a negative connotation and not for lending and borrowing, if it

weren't for debt we wouldn't be the country we are today, would we? >> that's right. i mean, we could not have expanded west. there's an image of freehold pioneers, you know, broadening in to the west. relying on nothing but the first institution that really spreads america to the west is the store. the store provides the european goods that are necessary, plow points and all these other sorts of things and we borrow and borrow to make it possible. we cannot have settled louisiana without a lot of debt. not just louisiana purchase which was financed in france, but also, you know, a lot of the private lending. california, texas, none of those could have been settled without extensive borrowing. of course, also a place to escape to. texas the place to escape from the debts in 1837. it was an independent republic. in the middle of that panic, mississippi and louisiana planners who had lost

everything, were in serious debt, would escape to texas the next day and sheriff that is came to collect on their debts would -- they'd mark on the back of the forms gtt, gone to texas. texas was really a deadbeat republic until it became a state. >> scott, the end of the book you talk more about the current crisis of 2008. and i'm going to read something you wrote. you said the democratic party embraced wall street following in bill clinton's footsteps. president obama and congressional democrats did not reach for the boom stick instead they sought the counsel of those insiders who had demanded the deregulation of the markets in '90s and talk about ram emanuel and geithner and larry summers. how do we get to rereform then? we had an opportunity to do something. >> we did. and this is the thing that keeps me up at night is sort of

thinking about the situation that we are in. we had the debt obligations. there was a huge derivatives market that ballooned in -- you know, from the late part of the '90s all the way through 2008. it almost collapsed, that derivatives market almost collapsed and then ballooned back up again. there was an opportunity to reform with dodd-frank. the pieces never got passed. part of what i'm trying to do in this book is outline the way in which party politics depends -- it -- the party politics in the u.s. is built on a rock split down the middle and has everything to do with banks. first and second bank of the united states and finally the federal reserve. parties themselves build themselves in relationship to their feelings about those banks. we wouldn't have had a democratic party without anger at the first bank of the united states. that sense of the two-party system being built around conflict over the banks has kind

of collapsed in the last six or seven years and it is kind of a -- gives one reason to reflect. the democratic party had an opportunity and i feel like didn't take it in the last four years. >> scott, to that point, dodd-frank incomplete in reforming the financial system. >> yes. >> what do we need to do to prevent another collapse? >> well, my sense is that a lot of these panics are built around a stable institution that -- a stable bond, aaa, that is going to provide you something like 4% or 5% interest. that aaa bond is in trouble. right now what needs to happen, i think, the derivatives market finally has to -- there has to be some response to this incredible leverage. you've got the lcfos. the large and complicated

financial organizations in a derivatives market whose nominal value is 600 trillion. and none of that -- none of those assets are really backed by collateral and has to come in. the leverage has to be eliminated and the last part of dod dodd-frank, the part that's not been worked out. i hope that a sort of both sides of congress will agree that something needs to be done there. to me, that's the danger. that's the thing that -- a reason of sovereign debt funds and reason firms are not back in the u.s. stock market is fears about what's going to happen with these banks. >> all right. scott reynolds nelson from down there in colonial williamsburg, thank you for joining us. they say a picture is worth a thousand words. an author/artist is dazzling the world with that sentiment. he's our guest, next. v.fififi

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with his wife, danielle, almost every weekend. derrell hasn't been able to visit his mom back east in a long time. [ shirley ] things are sometimes a little tight around the house. i wasn't able to go to the wedding. [ emily jo ] since derrell couldn't get home, we decided to bring home to him and then just gave him a little bit of help finding his way. ♪ [ laughs ] [ applause ] i love you. i love you, too. chris wear is the greatest graphic novelist of all-time and not even close. i'm hooked on the work devouring everything he's done. the drawings are meticulous and realistic. his stories are hyper realistic tales of isolation told from humanity's seamy side and this

year, "building stories" he worked on for a decade and 14 separate pieces about the lives of people and a walk-up in this gigantic front. here's the box. you get this piece and then this piece and then this little book which is about the life of a bumblebee and then this book and then there's another book. and then there's sort of board that comes out. and -- you know? it's this amazing piece of work that is moved the form of the graphic novel forward. it's so cool. it is an honor to have a true visionary on the show, welcome to "the cycle." how are you? >> i'm okay. thank you very much for having me. >> can you talk about the process of conceiving and creating this gigantic piece of work? >> you're probably granting me much too much credit here. it's sort of developed as i went along. originally i thought that it would break along the stories of

the building but as i worked on the book itself, it became clear it was being filtered through the mind of the woman living on the third floor and i wanted mostly to make a book that didn't have any beginning, middle or end and the reader come to it and enter it at any point and hopefully get somehow if the way we were able to remember things in sort of three dimensions and take them apart and put them back together and hopefully without being too preten house is about it and kind of difficult line to walk there so -- >> no. i think that sense comes through and kind of interesting you created a thing that doesn't have a beginning or an end. that you can sort of come in to it at any point. the thing that really kills me about your work is that visually, there's so much artistic beauty and, yet, the characters are going through so much pain and depression and isolation. why is -- why are both of those things wrapped up in your work? >> you know, i don't know. i mean, it doesn't seem like

it's necessarily that bad. it's -- mostly the story's about a woman, first of all, in her 20s living in this apartment on the top floor and then later she gets married and has a kid and doesn't suffer through that much. it's not like on the other side of the world where things might be a little bit more dire or terrifying or challenging. but same time, i think, you know, life can actually be kind of a beautiful thing an it's just up to each -- all of us to try to find that or see that. and i try to contrast this sort of an inner emotional torment and turmoil we feel against the beauty that is out there. somewhat. also, when we remember things, i think we tend to remember things maybe a little more beautifully than they possibly happen so -- i don't know if that answers your question at all. probably doesn't. >> no. it does. i mean, i want to talk about just the form of the graphic novel and now it allows you to do things that the novelist

can't do that the movie can't do. you're sort of in between those two spaces giving us visuals and the text and, you know, a narrative. what is that narrative. what is that form make it so exciting for you? >> i mean, fundamentally to me, comics are an art of memory. they're about how we recall things about how we've put them together, how we define ourselves. and the drawing itself in particular is defined by how we reduce reality down to little ideaograms. i tried to turn that back around and turn it into an art form. all i have to do is sit at a table with a piece of paper and pencil and nobody tells me what to do. there's no producers or directors or editors or anything. it's actually a very embarrassing sort of indulgent life into which i feel very lucky to have been thrown. but it's -- it's -- i mean, it's -- there's great potential there, i think, for sort of a

soul-pluming experience, i hope. i think a lot of cartoonists could potentially do that. there's a number of cartoonists doing that, probably more than ever before in the history of the medium. >> we will a little sort of kerfuffle in the office this morning when somebody called it a comic book. i said, no it's a graphic novel. is it wrong to call it a comic book? is there a fundamental difference? >> no, it's fine. i prefer comic book because it strips away the pretension graphic novel brings to it. if someone asks me what i do, i might say graphic novel, which hedges toward pornography. i say, it's not a novel that's graphic, it's a novel told in pictures. yeah, there's a lack of pretentiousness to comic book that suits the medium itself very nicely. it's a medium that allows for a direct connection between the reader and the artist in a way that i think a lot of fine art

does not. one is very apt to blame one's own ignorance of art in a museum. if you don't understand a painting, you just think you don't know much about the history of art. if you don't understand a comic book, you just think the cartoonist is an idiot, so i think that's an honest relationship that one can have between a reader and the artist. >> one of the moments that jumped out at me, when you get to the end of the booklet and you see people from 150 years in the future scoping out the moment you'd been talking about throughout the rest of the book, and somebody says, people really did think they were single particles back then. i'm like, what is that supposed to mean? >> that's one of those moments that probably i shouldn't allow myself to put into my stuff, but it's where your mind kind of gets away with you. those are thoughts you have every once in a while where you think, maybe humanity really is its own mass life form in a way and we're just contributing

pieces. there's a few billion people on this planet, and our planet is pretty small in the overall universe. i think, you know, there's -- we're fairly insignificant creatures, i think, when you come right down to it. we spend our lives defining ourselves what we are as a single human being. and i think -- i don't know. i mean, it's -- you know. i can't -- i can't defend myself in that way on national television, i don't think. >> i think you've done a fine job. thank you very much for building stories for jimmy corrigan, for the next book you're still working on and for being here today. >> thank you so much. i appreciate it. it's very flattering. coming up, steve tells us a story complete with moving pictures and stuff. into their work, their name on the door, and their heart into their community. small business saturday is a day to show our support.

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i cannot think the president enough for his personal concern, compassion for the people of our state. i heard on the phone conversation with him and i was able to witness it today personally. >> so, that really ticked off mitt romney's campaign. and it ticked off a lot of republicans across the country, too. it was two weeks after the election, still griping about how lavishly chris christie praised barack obama during hurricane sandy, which hit new jersey just a few days before the election. i said at the time there probably wasn't a political calculation behind christie's words, that they were a very understandable and very human response from a man who just washed a monster storm ravage the state he loves. i also said his response would nonetheless help christie politically. oh, how it has. there is a new poll out from

rutgers today that gives the governor a 67% favorable rating. that is six points better than barack obama in new jersey. he carried the state by 16 points last month -- a few weeks ago, actually. christie's number also includes a 27-point spike from the last rutgers poll among democrats. we see bounces like this at the presidential level, think of george bush after 9/11 or george h.w. bush after the gulf war. christie will probably fall from his perch a bit in the weeks and months ahead, but he has a buffer now. we all know christie has national ambitions. he wants to run for president in 2016. he also loves the job he has and he wants to keep it. it's very hard for republicans to win elections in new jersey. the state hasn't sent a republican to the senate in 40 years and counting, and christie's narrow victory in 2009, a four-point margin with less than 50% of the vote. that counts as the second

biggest republican landslide in new jersey over the last four decades. now he's sitting pretty for next year. even before sandy, christie's approval rating was over 50% and he seemed likely to draw a second tier democratic opponent but now it has more clarity. cory booker has been pretending to be interested in the governor's race for a few months now. that's how he gets national media attention and it's worked. now the jig is up. look for booker to run for senate in 2014, against franc lautenberg, a fellow democrat if necessary, but not for governor. look for the obama white house to keep its distance from next year's governor's race. before sandy new jersey democrats talked of a re-elected obama returning to the state in 2013 to promote their gubernatorial candidate. now the white house is grateful to christie. since obama won't be running again in 2016 it's not likely they feel threatened by his ambition. obama won't be saving new jersey democrats next year either.